Week 9 - Some More "Word-for-word" Examples

For the last couple of weeks, we've been looking at examples of words that people confuse with other words and end up misusing as a result. Here are some more examples:

Jealous vs. envious

Ellen: "I spent eight hours at the beach yesterday."
Helen: "I'm so jealous."

You almost never hear someone say "I'm so envious," but "I'm jealous" shows up all the time. In fact, Helen may well be jealous, but that sentiment wouldn't have anything to do with the beach (unless, of course, Ellen had been at the beach with Helen's husband). Jealousy refers only to affairs of the heart, as in

The jealous husband wished ill of his wife's lover.

Envy is the simpler, though sometimes equally destructive, emotion you feel when you wish you had something, or some ability, sensitivity, etc., that someone else has. I hadn't heard it phrased this way before, but Wikipedia points out that envy usually involves two people, and jealousy three.


Criteria vs. criterion

This one is simple: "criteria" is the plural of "criterion." Everyone seems to know the word "criteria," so they use it for both singular and plural applications:

One selection criteria on which everyone agrees is personality. [Incorrect]

When we rate the candidates, one important criterion is sense of humor. [Correct]


Affect vs. effect

This one is complicated, since both "affect" and "effect" can be verbs as well as nouns. The noun "affect" should be used rarely -- it refers to the way someone comes across to others:

She had such a positive affect that people overlooked her frequent tardiness.

"Effect" as a noun is much more common:

Her tardiness had a negative effect on people.

As verbs, "effect" is the rare one -- we usually see it with "change" as its direct object:

Because of her positive affect, she was often able to effect change.

The more common verb is "affect," as in

How will the current gasoline shortage affect people's vacation plans for this winter?

Or, equally correct:

What effect will the current gasoline shortage have on people's vacation plans for this winter?


May vs. might

We all remember the subjunctive, right? Well, today's your lucky day, because that's all I'm going to say about it. But here's an example of a common misuse that may involve the subjunctive:

Had I walked slowly, I may have gotten soaked.

The correct construction, without getting into the (very complicated, I might add) theory of the subjunctive, is

Had I walked slowly, I might have gotten soaked.


If vs. whether

OK, one last one for today. This word-for-word mistake is common, so common that I'm worried it will be accepted usage before too long. "If" does have the advantage of brevity, and some of these misuses don't sound too bad, since we've heard them so often:

When you get back from the store, why don't you decide if you should clean out the fridge?

The sentence above should say "...decide whether you should clean...." "Whether" should be used when there are alternatives, as in cleaning out the fridge or not cleaning out the fridge. So in a sentence like the one above, if the meaning is unaltered when you add "or not" to the end, then you should be using "whether" instead of "if," even if it takes five more letters.